He appeared to be in his late forties or maybe his early fifties. A man sat slightly removed from the action distant enough to make sure he wouldn’t get any nasty blood stains on his expensive suit, but still close enough to watch every blow land. His suspicions were quickly proved correct. He looked past the men who’d been throwing their fists around. They had the look of men who did as they were told-who were used to delivering a beating in the dispassionate manner of those who simply had a job to do.Įveret’s eyes narrowed. The boy on the floor temporarily forgotten, all four guys turned toward Everet. Just as he expected, the men were shocked enough to stop what they were doing. “That’s enough.” Everet’s words cut cleanly through the sound of one of the human’s boots meeting the prone avian’s ribs. One poor sod curled up on the floor taking a pounding from them all. In a split second, Everet took in every detail of the scene before him.įour attackers. He reached the door and pushed it open, knowing that any sign of weakness or hesitation might sign two death warrants. His survival instincts screamed at him to get out of there, but he didn’t let that slow his progress across the room. It was the kind of nightclub where the bartenders probably doubled up as extra dumb-muscle when required, and the man was as big as a bloody albatross.Įveret’s brain whirled. He tensed, automatically trying to work out if the guy should be considered a threat. The hairs on the back of Everet’s neck prickled as he felt the man run an assessing eye over him.

If a human’s senses were acute enough to hear the beating taking place on the other side of the door, the bartender betrayed no sign of it. On the other side of the sleek metallic counter, a man stopped restocking the shelves with bottles and tracked Everet’s progress. With the establishment already closed for the evening, there were no dancers or drinkers to get in Everet’s way as he strode quickly toward the door at the far end of a long, curved bar. The sound of fists slamming into flesh travelled clearly through the otherwise silent nightclub, and Everet had no doubt who was playing the part of the punch bag tonight. “They’ve cornered the little bastard in the back room.”Įveret nodded, but he hadn’t really needed the bouncer’s help to work that out.

Magpie by Kim Dare